the duchess will see you now

Roller Coaster

It is Wednesday and I think I need a day of R&R. I do not mean Rock ‘n Roll.

This past Saturday, Yim and I attended our friends’ wedding reception. Great time had by all! We celebrated with old friends we’d not seen in a while, friends we see everyday, and new friends, too. The reception was held in Jay Verno Studios, which is wild; the place looks like a movie set. In the back they had a photo booth and a table full of props. In the reception area, the photo booth images were projected onto the wall in real-time. Everyone had so much fun. The photos were printed in duplicate; one for the guest book, and one to take home.

The party took its toll on me, though, and by Sunday morning when I awoke I was not feeling my best. My throat hurt and my glands felt swollen. I hung in there, keeping positive and drinking miso soup. Monday morning I was still fighting. It helped that I was looking forward to some home improvement plans, evening guests, and jazz at Ava Lounge. Yim and I had scheduled the day for changing ceiling fixtures. It’s too long a tale to tell under the circumstances, which are that I am not in the mood to reiterate, but this leg of the roller coaster story ends badly and we can just skip forward to that part.

So, despite feeling slightly under the weather, I was still high from the weekend’s festivities and the prospect of spending the day with Yimmy doing our thing. He moved the coffee table, he moved Lord Mycol’s bed. He put up the ladder in each room necessary and prepared for a plumber to come and take care of the gas lines in the ceilings before we hang our fixtures. But as the day wore on, it started to look like the plumber wasn’t showing up. I have a tendency to put so much hope and excitement into a thing that if it doesn’t pan out, I come crashing down to utter despair and pessimism. Pessimism is not good for your health. And actually, I am still pissed at that plumber. He was a no call, no-show. By the time I realized that, I no longer had any interest in participating in the rest of the evening – which was to include friends stopping by for a drink before heading out to Ava Lounge for jazz. But people were depending on me and that is always when I come through despite how I feel. So instead of breaking something in anger, I went to the store with Yimmy and got some mint and soda water for mojitos. Don’t mojitos make everything better? Before you answer that, read on.

Alison, her boyfriend Chris, and Anna showed up around 8. We made our small talk, poured some drinks and moved into the living room to get comfortable. Anna mentioned my post, When Chafed, Buy a Chafing Dish. Thus, the conversation turned to collecting vintage kitchen ware. We were unanimous in our appreciation for the stuff, but Chris said that fear of breaking his vintage finds would keep him from using them. That’s when I piped in, trying to explain that the majority of my finds are durable and not so rare that I wouldn’t use them; this in an effort to convince my audience to be more active in their acquisition of retro kitchen ware that would remind them of their childhoods and a time past. I was feeling less dejected by now from the plumber’s failure to show up, thereby putting off the mounting of my new ceiling fixtures, so I boldly went to the dining room to fetch the perfect example of a lovely vintage find that is not so rare that I won’t use it every chance I get, without fear of breaking it!

I marched back into the living room with my yellow and gold Hall’s covered casserole and promptly threw it down on the floor, breaking one of the gold handles from the side. (I didn’t actually throw it down, it slipped from my hands!) I COULD NOT BELIEVE what just happened. As if I was getting too big for my britches, the universe stepped in and smote me down, just like so. Do not be a braggart! That is what I thought to myself as everyone in the room expressed true sympathy for me and the complete irony of the situation. And if that weren’t enough, while searching the floor for the missing piece of handle, I realized my finger had been cut in the chaos. I eased myself back into conversation, but once my guests left, I couldn’t help but mull over what had happened, how and why, over and over again until there was nothing left to mull.

I ended up reneging on plans to go out and listen to jazz and, as always, Yim was caring.

Tuesday wound up being the high point of the coaster, restoring joy and order to my world. A day designed perfectly to my sensibilities, it was perfect from beginning to end. I will post about it tomorrow. Until then, as I said, today is Wednesday and I am in need of some R&R.